Popular Music & Disability

Catalog description

How does popular music activate and challenge ideas about disability? Students in this course will think about the role popular music plays in shaping ideas about disability, including topics such as ableism, normalcy, identity, stigma, neurodiversity, and embodied knowledge. We will examine the ways popular music can be a powerful force for challenging stereotypes, uncovering marginalization, and bolstering positive images of bodily difference. We will also explore how music can reproduce harmful tropes or ableist attitudes. Students will gain knowledge of some of the core ideas in disability studies and disability justice, and they will learn to link these ideas to the study of popular music.